Review: Get a Job (2016)

There’s a song played frequently on the radio at the moment which I’m in love with. It’s called ‘Stressed Out’ by Twenty One Pilots, and at first it just had a catchy tune, but now I really feel like I can relate to the lyrics. Bear with me, this is going somewhere, I promise.

The opening to Get a Job (2016) is perfect. It reminds us that when we were kids, everything was given to us, and we were praised for every tiny thing we did. Then, one day, at the end of our mandatory education, we’re thrown into the real world where no one cares about our small achievements, and we have to actually work for a living. That’s how I feel about life right now, or at least did a few years ago. I’ve found my feet now, thankfully.  I've just about found my feet and now I'm counting down to retirement!

Back to that song, Stressed Out. There’s a particular line that give me same feeling as the opening to that movie: Used to dream of outer space but now they're laughing at our face,

Saying, "Wake up, you need to make money."

So, with a relevant and relatable plot, and a huge cast of some of my favourite actors and actresses, (Anna Kendrick, Alison Brie, Bryan Cranston, Miles Teller, Christopher Mintz-Plasse) I knew I couldn’t go wrong by giving this movie some of my time. Yeah. About that.  How could it be anything other than awesome with this cast, no seriously how?!

Everything starts out perfectly fine. Will (Teller) and his girlfriend Jillian (Kendrick) are celebrating Jillian’s new job, which stirs up trouble in their relationship when Will is told he needs to step up. His father is fed up of financing him, and he needs to put his creative dreams aside and enter the corporate world. With an unusually short runtime of 1hr 23mins, this plot is plenty, especially when Jillian winds up losing her job and the roles get reversed, but so many sub plots are thrown into the mix that I couldn’t work out what was actually going on anymore.  Ditto, completely lost!

It’s a shame, because each plot in itself is absolutely fine. Will’s father loses his job, and has huge difficulty finding a new one because of his loyalty to his previous employer and his age. That’s a huge problem for the older generation right now, and could have tied in perfectly with Will’s story, given a longer runtime. But that’s not all. Each of Will’s friends has their own storyline of taking their first step on the career ladder, and that’s where it gets too messy. Whilst trying to desperately tie up the loose threads in the plot, it seems those responsible forgot to add in any jokes. The only comedic relief came from Alison Brie’s character who seemed to serve no purpose other than making sexual innuendos. She was funny, at least.

I have to completely agree, they really jam packed a lot of plot points into a particularly short running time.  In honestly, I kind of gave up about half way through, I didn't give a monkey's if any of them got a job, lost a job or sold their mother for a job and with the title being what it is, I'm guessing you are supposed to care about that stuff.  It starts off really logical and believable and rapidly becomes ridiculous, becoming a vice president of something or other after 6 months in a company or rugby tackling various security staff so your Dad can get an 'interview' in an elevator.  All bloody ridiculous!

So finally, after looking the movie up online to find out whether I was just being a miserable sod, I found out that Get a Job was made in 2012, and has sat on the shelf for the last 4 years, with Anna Kendrick herself confident that the movie would never get a release date. That says more than I ever could.  I think she was probably secretly hoping as well to be fair!

 

Mini Reviews: Two Night Stand (2014), In My Dreams (2014) & Prime (2005)

When I started these three reviews, I didn’t realise I was going to give them all the same rating, however this has ended up being a post to celebrate the mediocre those middle ground films that aren’t rubbish but aren’t good either.

Having seen Whiplash and the Spectacular Now (and before suffering Fantastic Four) I was a little bit obsessed with Miles Teller so when I clocked Two Night Stand, I had to give it a go.  I wasn’t disappointed, I wasn’t overwhelmed but I wasn’t disappointed so that’s a good thing.  It was pretty unrealistic, but what else can we expect from a romcom (before the amazingness that was Man Up!) so that didn’t bother me.  Not sure how memorable the story was, I remember most of it but the details are already disappearing (although exactly how long it’s been since I actually saw it is questionable).  I wouldn’t say its anything special but it’s the kind of film you can happily watch on a Sunday afternoon curled up on the sofa, so that’ll do for me!

Another weekend, another evening of Netflix surfing.  I was baking a cake (which took 8 hours in total) so I needed something that required no thinking whatsoever.  In your dreams was just that, a light hearted, terribly acted story of a mystical curse on a fountain.  If you throw your coin in you will dream about your true love for 7 days and you can use that to find said person.  Here’s the thing, they threw, they dreamt, they happen to be in the same place at the same time but miss each other, decide to find each other, miss each other again, then meet up at the fountain….thats it!  No twists not turns just bog standard low budget rom com.  It wasn’t terrible, it was far from fantastic but it entertained me while I was baking – I wouldn’t watch it again though.

Another find of Netflix, I like Uma Thurman, I LOVE Meryl Streep and I like that kid from One Tree Hill so this couldn’t all be bad.  It was actually surprisingly entertaining (although I’m pretty sure I realised half way through that I had in fact seen it before!) and interesting as it considers the dynamics of age gaps in relationships, particularly older women with younger men.  Streep throws in some great humour as David's (Bryan Greenberg) controlling Jewish mother, who also happens to be Rafi’s therapist but it just doesn’t quite hit the mark for me.  It’s obviously forgettable as didn’t remember ever seeing it before (although that may be my age!) and it rapidly flipped from light hearted rom com to a story of emotional heartbreak and loss leaving me a little bit perplexed as to whether it was a happy or sad ending.  Not awful but don’t rush out to see it, catch it on a Sunday afternoon with a cuppa tea!

Mini Reviews: The Maze Runner (2014), Fantastic Four (2015) & Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015)

Doing overtime at home to pay for our cat Loki's vet bills has meant I've worked my way through a lot of movies recently, which in turn means plenty of reviews to write up! This little set mainly contains movies that Jenna's already seen and reviewed, so it seemed silly to dedicate a whole post to each!  You know I drafted a post for Mission Impossible but never wrote it or posted it?! You didn't?! I thought you did, ha!

I have very little interest in the Fantastic Four series, it’s just never had much appeal to me. However, I won’t miss a chance to see a superhero movie and despite the appalling reviews, I gave Fantastic Four (2015) a go. Boy, it really was terrible. The introduction was alright, although the characters were boring, and the ending was okay, especially in terms of special effects. The main problem was everything else, cheesy dialogue, awful acting and just a boring plot that didn’t flow well at all. I guess Green Lantern isn’t the worst superhero movie anymore, huzzah! I’ll take that as a win. Damn it!!

When the trailers came out for The Maze Runner (2014), I wasn’t bothered in the slightest. I hadn’t read the books, and I was still in awe of The Hunger Games so I wrote this off completely. Curiosity got the better of me though and I ended up enjoying this much more than I thought I would. The tension and now knowing where the plot was going kept me hooked and I was pleasantly surprised. Dylan O’Brien impressed me in Teen Wolf and he makes a great lead in this. I’m quite looking forward to watching The Scorch Trials now!

Although I was very late to the party, I really enjoyed 2011’s Ghost Protocol and when the trailers came out for Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015) I couldn’t wait. It sounds silly but it’s probably one of my favourite trailers, I think it was the music that did it for me. Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed the latest mission. Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner and Simon Pegg have such a great on-screen chemistry, I’d happily watch them together in anything! I got a little lost in the game of ‘Is Isla a good guy, bad guy, double agent, double double agent’ malarky but that’s normal for me, ha.

Review: Fantastic Four (2015)

Yet another case of blogging memory loss, I could have sworn I had written and published this review but I hadn't even started it - What the heck!?  As you all well know I was really looking forward to this and hoping it would not be a disaster after being perfectly happy with the 'rubbish' original...

Reed Richards (Miles Teller) spends his young life working on a teleporter with the help of his best friend Ben Grimm (Jamie Bell), which when working with scientist, Franklin Storm (Reg E. Cathey) and his daughter Sue (Kate Mara) realises it transports to an alternate reality.  Reed, Ben, Sue's brother Johnny (Michael B. Jordan) and Victor Von Doom (Toby Kebbell) get drunk and decide to test the transporter before the Government can take it away from them.  Unfortunately, the alternate universe is not what they expect and they end up with strange super powers.....

I had such high hopes and said hopes were dashed...epically.  This was nothing like I expected, the CGI and the graphics were amazing which IS what I expected but the story was terrible and really not much about super heroes as much as a really boring story about four boring people (one of which is barely in the film!).  Ben's character barely had any presence at all but randomly got called by Reed near the end to be included in the trip (and therefore become The Thing), Victor von Doom, the supposed bad guy, is ridiculously likeable (and to me more like how I would expect Johnny Storm to be) and Johnny Storm was just plain boring (much like his sister). 

I was so excited to see Miles Teller again, after falling in love with him in Whiplash and he was so unbelievably bland, I couldn't believe it was the same actor.  These were all great actors, so it must have been down to the story or the screen play because it just had nothing about it.  It spent so long on the run up to the 'transporter disaster' and hardly any time on the 'becoming super heroes' part - I fact where it ended, I thought that would be in the first 40 minutes or so.  I get that it is setting up for a series (as per usual) but it is blatantly obvious that Fox have rushed out a remake to avoid losing the rights to the characters and threw in as many up and coming actors/actresses as they could get their hands on to hype it up.

Not good, not good at all.  I am VERY concerned about Deadpool now!!!

Review: The Spectacular Now (2013)

Recently it feels like I’ve watched nothing but blockbusters, and so over the weekend I was after a change. After being woken up far too early on Saturday morning by my delightful, hungry cats, I curled up on the sofa with a cup of tea and hunted down something light to watch. I suddenly remembered a romcom-type film I’d actually mentioned to Jenna a while ago, which I hadn’t gotten round to watching yet, so I put on The Spectacular Now.

The Spectacular Now is a coming of age type film that leans more towards being a drama than a comedy (in my opinion at least). Our main character, Sutter (Miles Teller) is a popular, fun loving guy who lives in the moment and doesn’t plan for the future. His whirlwind romance with Cassidy (Brie Larson) sadly comes to an end but when Sutter meets Aimee (Shailene Woodley) his outlook on life starts to change.

Hopefully I’ve summed that plot up okay without butchering it! This is what I thought was a twist on the classic ‘Jock goes out with Nerd as a dare and ends up falling in love’ plot but ended up having much more depth than that. Sutter is one of the popular kids, sure, but he’s also a huge alcoholic with problems at home with his Mum. Aimee reads anime books and draws her favourite characters for fun, but she’s far from a loser.

I wouldn’t say there were twists in this film, but there were certain events I was expecting to happen, which didn’t. For example, I expected Sutter to change his mind about prom. There was one moment towards the end of the film which took me by total surprise, and my cats were glad my cup of tea was almost empty by that point as they’d have been soaked!

The Spectacular Now was a beautiful and painful story, and I would recommend it to anyone who’s a fan of ‘coming of age’ films. 

Now Jenna, I think it’s time to bring up the scoring system again. This was far better than a 7 for me, but I don’t think it’s 8 material. It’s a 7.5 for goodness sakes! For the sake of peace, I’ll stick with my Letterboxd score (which also doesn’t allow halves - are you one of the founders Jenna?) Yes, yes I am, didn't I tell you ;-) They kicked me out though for being adamant half scores are useless on a 1-10 scale!!

Review: Whiplash (2014)

Along with The Theory of Everything, this was my most anticipated Oscar tipped movie so I had to see it before the ceremony on 22nd February.  I'm definitely making the most of the Unlimited Cinema Card this month!! (For those not UK based, a local cinema here in the UK does an Unlimited card that means you can go as many times as you like for a monthly fee!)

When I went to see The Imitation Game last November, we had trailers for almost every other Oscar bait films. It was the first time I saw American Sniper, and realised I held my breath throughout the whole trailer. Typically, I missed that one and won’t get a chance now till the DVD release. When I saw the Whiplash trailer however, I laughed. So did the rest of the cinema. How could they make a drama out of a kid playing drums?

Andrew (Miles Teller) is a promising drummer who is attending Shaffer conservatory, the best music programme in the US.  He is hand picked by Terence Fletcher (JK Simmons) the most respected professor at the school for his studio band.  Fletcher shows no remorse for bullying and intimidating his students to be great which pushes Andrew to near obsession to be the best.

I think I held my breath for this whole film, I was on the edge of my seat willing Andrew to succeed and for Fletcher to give him a break.  I was so involved in the movie, I very nearly shouted at the screen, cheered and clapped along with Andrew's journey, I felt like part of it myself.  I thought I knew where the story was heading from one scene to the next and I was promptly proved wrong, it twisted and turned on itself, by the end I had no idea what to expect. 

According to IMDB, Whiplash is one of the lowest grossing movies ever to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. It’s also part of a huge debate as to whether it should be classed as an Original or Adapted Screenplay, although the Academy are adamant that it’s Adapted. I can see the story from both sides really. Whiplash started out as a short movie at Sundance (and won), and that’s the reason it’s fallen under Adapted Screenplay.  But after some further research, I found out that they only released the short film in order to generate funds to make the feature length movie - the plot thickens....

JK Simmons was incredible and truly terrifying as Professor Fletcher, I was willing Andrew to do better to avoid him having to glare at him or throw something.  He had me on the edge of my seat and didn't falter from his alter-ego for even a second.  Miles Teller was a close second but nonetheless brilliant (it's hard to believe he only learnt to play the drums for this film!!), his steely determination to be the best is portrayed through (literal) blood, sweat and tears makes you sympathise with him to a certain degree but his inability to see beyond his success limits his likability.

Is there an actor out there who looks exactly like Miles Teller? I could have sworn I’d seen him in a few things, but after checking out his filmography, apparently I must be thinking of someone else (he was in That Awkward Moment?!).  Anyway, I thought he was brilliant in this. Although I was rooting for him, he wasn’t a completely likeable character. He’s lived in the shadow of his brothers all his life it seems, and his parents don’t understand his aspirations as a musician. His treatment of Nicole was uncalled for though, and he’s too cocky. He will stop at nothing to get what he wants however, which is admirable if nothing else.

J.K. Simmons on the other hand, absolutely blew me away. He’s the only actor who’s ever made me laugh out loud, and then sh*t my pants in the same minute, if you’ll excuse the expression. Terence is a character you love to hate. Every scene he was in, I was holding my breath waiting for him to just explode. Simply amazing!

The songs used throughout the movie, in the studio band, were perfect for this.  Caravan particularly showed how hard Fletcher could be on his students, lining up three drummers to sweat and bleed for hours to reach the 'his' tempo - the whole scene had me on edge waiting to see if he was going to snap or just keep making them play.  It was worse that a horror movie!

Without ruining the ending for anyone, the credits took me by complete surprise and I could help but cry ‘Noooo!’ because I just didn’t want it to end. I wanted to see the reaction to what had just happened! Whiplash is one of the most intense films I have ever seen. I might not have been able to appreciate the musical academic parts, but it was still one hell of a ride.

Brilliant casting and a twist and turning story of fear, pride and the will to succeed no matter what.

Review: That Awkward Moment (2014)

I actually watched this on a plane, I can confirm for certain that it is NSFP!!!  As it was on the movie listings on the plane, I thought 'how bad could it be??' It was bad and it got worse, I was in a world of my own watching the film and all of a sudden this face appeared in front of me and it was a steward asking if I wanted a drink.  So I paused the film, only to realise it was the scene where Zac Efron lies across the toilet naked to go to the loo, then the guy next to me wanted to get out to go to the toilet so I couldn't play again.  I felt like everyone was staring at me and I must have been the colour of a beetroot.

 

That Awkward Moment follows three best friends who, after Mikey (Michael B. Jordan) finds out his wife has been having an affair, choose to make a pact to stay single.  Things start to get more complicated when Jason (Zac Efron), the serial singleton, meets the girl of his dreams.

This is a typical American comedy with stacks of sex and toilet humour (sometimes both, see above!) and gross out gags galore.  However, it still made me laugh, there is a scene around the middle with Jason and Daniel (Miles Teller) in a sex shop that literally had me howling with laughter (which is pretty impressive on a plane when you consistently fight the urge to laugh/cry/shout at the screen at all costs).

 

That scene was brilliant, I also loved the 'dress up' party scene - 'Rock out with your c*ck out!'. I have to say that after this and Bad Neighbours, Zac Efron has done well to shake that High School Musical image away from my mind.

 

I absolutely fell in love with Jason and Ellie (Imogen Poots). Both me and Jenna are suckers for a good love story and theirs was just adorable. One of the final scenes with them at the book reading was my absolute favourite, I was smiling from ear to ear!

 

There are some awkward moments in the film (should have expected it really) that make you cringe so badly that you desperately want to turn the film off but no you don't because all of a sudden that awkward situation becomes quite funny.  The film plays the rom-com cards from the male perspective, which although has been done before, is quite refreshing.

 

I would say that although there are plenty of funny (and awkward!) parts in That Awkward Moment, it most definitely leans more towards the romantic side of the romcom, which I actually enjoyed. The plot isn't completely predictable either, as I boldly claimed 20 minutes in I knew how it would end, and I wasn't completley right.

The rom-com that both men and women will enjoy, bit too much toilet humour for my liking but would definitely watch it again.